MPI says it can’t lead road safety in Manitoba

In their final argument at the hearing on 2014 rates, MPI representatives told the PUB that MPI’s role in road safety is jurisdictionally “limited” to research and education.

This is very different language from the “leadership” language on road safety MPI touts in their coporate vision statement:

“MPI will lead driver and vehicle safety initiatives that reduce risk and protect Manitobans, their streets and their neighbourhoods”

MPI lawer Kathy Kalinowski argued that intervenors such as the Manitoba Consumers’ Association were “mistaken” in their understanding of MPI’s role in road safety. [Bike Winnipeg collaborated with Manitoba CAC to present arguments concerning road safety for vulnerable road users.]

She compared trying to manage collision costs through road safety to trying to manage losses due to weather.

She told the PUB that the MPI board of directors has the jurisdiction to decide how to proceed on road safety, and that the PUB does not have the jurisdiction to question how MPI does that. This is a rebuke to the PUB’s efforts in the past two years to focus on road safety as a way to reduce collision claims.

The PUB is expected to release its decision on this MPI rate case in early December.